A new program called Gun Stoppers will be launched on the Peninsula Jan. 1 by the people who run Crime Line, which pays callers for tips that solve crimes.

The way Gun Stoppers will work is simple: A person calls the Crime Line number and gives authorities a detailed description of the illegally armed man, woman or youth. Officers will go and check out the report. If it turns out to be true, the offender will be arrested. The gun will be seized and eventually destroyed.

Officers will only investigate calls made to Gun Stoppers about people who are in a public area. They will not enter a home.

If a caller's information leads police to a firearm that the person is carrying illegally or to a related crime, the caller could be eligible for up to $1,000. Members of the Crime Line board will decide the exact amount of the reward. All callers will remain anonymous.

"The key here is community awareness," said Jerry Franklin, president of Peninsula Crime Line. "We want to get illegal guns off the street."

Bringing Gun Stoppers to the Peninsula was the idea of Hampton Police Chief Pat Minetti, who heard about the program's effectiveness in Charleston, S.C. He brought the concept to the Crime Line board, and members this month approved it.

"If there is an incentive out there to turn people in, we may be able to prevent some of these crimes from happening," he said. "There is so much focus on the type of weapons people should be carrying. It's time to start focusing on people with no right to carry them."

Officials who will be orchestrating the program in other Peninsula cities agreed.

"We think it's an excellent idea," said Harold M. Willaford, an investigator with the York County Sheriff's Department and Crime Line coordinator for the county. "We think it will possibly prevent crimes from occurring with illegal guns."

The National Rifle Association was not so positive about Gun Stoppers. While the association likes for police to take guns out of criminals' hands, it does not support paying for information. The group is worried about whether people legally carrying guns will be victimized.

"The NRA supports neighborhood watches and citizens working with law enforcement," said Jim Manown, NRA spokesman. "But when you have a situation where people are giving tips and getting cash, there is way too much room for mischief on the part of tipsters.

"We are concerned about the lay person's ability to interpret firearm laws. There are tens of thousands of firearm laws, and lots and lots of reasons a person may be in the possession of firearms," he said.

But to Minetti, many of those reasons are not good ones.

In Hampton, he said, 29 percent of the violent crimes reported so far this year have involved a firearm. Of the robberies, 43 percent have been committed with a gun. All five of the murders committed in Hampton this year involved handguns, said police spokesman Jeff Walden.

"It's the same problem every police department in the country is suffering," said Minetti. "I think we should do everything we can to make sure people who are not legally allowed to carry guns aren't.

"Hopefully, this will act as a deterrent, especially for kids," the chief said.

In Charleston, it did just that.

The city started the program in May 1994. Since then, police have received 85 tips about illegal firearms. As a result, 47 arrests have been made and 44 illegally carried handguns have been seized, according to Sgt. Phillip McFadden, who is in charge of the effort. Of the guns taken, 27 were found in schools.

"All of these guns were confiscated before they were ever used in the commission of a crime. We got the gun first. The guns were never fired. Think of how many lives were saved," he said.

"It has been totally and very successful. The public loves the program. We have received no negative feedback about it whatsoever."

Each illegal gun taken off Charleston streets results in a $100 reward for the caller who told police about it. More than $4,000 in reward money has been doled out so far, McFadden said.

A major difference between Charleston's program and the Peninsula's is how they are funded. Three Charleston businesses stepped forward and chipped in $10,000 to pay for the endeavor.

On the Peninsula, the money will come out of the general fund that also pays for Crime Line tips, Franklin said. Crime Line is funded solely by donations and fund-raisers.

If Gun Stoppers is wildly successful, he said, it is likely that more money will be needed. That, however, is a problem that Franklin would love to have.

"Obviously, the more we pay, the more information police are getting," he said. "It's sort of like that saying, `If you build it, they will come.'

"If we can build on the success of the program and can help police departments, I think it will convince people to contribute."